The Union Cycliste Internationale has informed the Canadian Cycling Association that the Montreal round of the 2005 womens road cycling World Cup will be open to regional and club teams from both Canada and the USA.

Normally, womens World Cup events are only open to regional and club teams from the host country. However, given the fact that the majority of US-based teams are not registered with the UCI and would, according to the rules, not be allowed to participate, in the interests of the sporting quality of the event the UCI has relaxed the criteria for the Montreal event.

We look forward to seeing an exciting lineup in Montreal on May 28.

Canadas Track World Championships Team Announced

Thanks to strong performances at the final UCI Track World Cup in Sydney, Australia, last weekend Canada will field a team of six athletes at the 2005 Track Cycling World Championships in Los Angeles (March 24-27).

In Sydney, Travis Smith of Calgary posted a time of one minute, 4.945 seconds to finish seventh in the mens kilometre time trial; the team sprint squad of Smith, Yannick Morin (Montreal) and Cam MacKinnon (Calgary) rode 47.885 seconds to finish sixth; Martin Gilbert of Montreal bounced back from a scratch race ruined by a flat tire to finish sixth in the mens points race; and Olympic champion Lori-Ann Muenzer of Edmonton came fourth in the womens sprint and third in the 500 m time trial with a time of 35.608 seconds.

As a result of these and earlier World Cup performances, Canadas worlds quota is one entry each in the mens kilo, mens team sprint, mens points race, womens 500 m, womens sprint, womens scratch race and womens points race.

The worlds team will be made up of Smith (kilo and team sprint), Morin and MacKinnon (team sprint), Gilbert (points race), Muenzer (sprint and 500) and Mandy Poitras of Vancouver (womens scratch race and points race).

The team will be led by national track coach Eric Van den Eynde.

Congratulations to Tour de lAbitibi

The Canadian Cycling Association would like to congratulate the city of Val dOr and organizer Claude Pagé for reaching an agreement to secure the future of the Tour de lAbitibi. The 2005 edition of this prestigious event will go ahead from July 19 to 24 in the Abitibi region as planned, continuing a tradition that dates back to 1969.

The CCA would also like to thank the staff of the Fédération Québecoise des Sports Cyclistes for their hard work to help bring about this result.

We can look forward once again to seeing the worlds top junior cyclists line up in Val dOr on July 19 for six exciting days of competition.